Gagan Bihari Swain makes a boat trip from Papakshyaya Ghat near Binika to Sonepur. Telegraph picture

Sonepur, Aug. 29: The Sonepur district administration has decided to develop the famous Papakshyaya Ghat on the banks of Mahanadi near Binika to attract more tourists.

At a meeting with members of the Papakshyaya Ghat Bikash Parishad, senior citizens of Binika and officials of the administration, Subarnapur district collector Gagan Bihari Swain said there would be a boat club on the ghat where snake boats like those in Kerala, would be made available to tourists.

The district collector also assured that he would take steps to construct steps at the ghat and also begin the work of the proposed Kalyan Mandap, Papakshyaya Mandap and a children park there.

Collector Swain said the Mahanadi in Subarnapur district could be a tourist hub if its potential was exploited properly. “I feel there should be boating facility for the tourists at the Papakshyaya Ghat. Like the backwaters in Kerala, tourists here could travel from Papakshyaya Ghat in Binika to Sonepur by boat. All the tourists have to do is contact the district administration to enjoy boating in the river,” he said.

“There is scope of more research on the history of the place and a book should be written”, Swain said. Senior citizens of Binika drew attention of the district collector about their suggestions to take up various developmental works to attract tourist to the place.

“We asked the district collector to construct steps in the ghat to help the devotees who throng here in large number during the solar eclipse and lunar eclipse for the holy dip. We also asked the district collector to take up the work of the Kalyan Mandap, Papakshyaya Mandap and the children park,” said Rabi Sahu, a senior local resident.

Legend has it that all the sins of a person are washed away when he takes a dip in the Mahanadi at the Papakshyaya Ghat during a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse. People pass through a narrow passage through an old banyan tree after taking the holy dip on such days.

Noted litterateur Atala Bihari Panda said the practice of people thronging the ghat for a holy dip during these two nebular phenomena dates back to the 13th century. “History has it that some 800 years ago in the 13th century, King Anangabhima Deva II, who ruled Sonepur, was cured from a dreaded skin disease after he took a bath here. To commemorate it, the king constructed a temple a few kilometres away from the ghat at Charda village, which is now famous as the Kapileswar temple,” said Panda.

“It is probably after that the ghat was named as Papakshyaya Ghat and people thronged the place to take dip in a bid to wash off their sins,” Panda said.